Creative flogs UK subsidiary ZiiLabs

Creative Technology is selling off its UK subsidiary ZiiLabs Limited to Intel as part of a US$50 million deal and licencing shedloads of its technology.

Creative said Intel will pay US$20 million to license certain high-performance GPU technology owned by its subsidiary ZiiLabs Inc. The remaining US$30 million will be for the transfer of engineering resources and assets of ZiiLabs. ZiiLabs was once known as 3DLabs, and it seems that Creative is keener to get out of the UK even more than Julian Assange.

The UK operation designs and develops ZMS chips. Creative found it more cost-effective to outsource this part of the business to third-party service providers. Sim Wong Hoo, CEO of Creative Technology said that the next-generation advanced media processors beyond 28 nanometers (nm) are increasingly complex and expensive to develop.

Creative will also continue to monetize its "formidable" portfolio of over 100 patents, which includes 3D graphics and media processing, he added.